CNA Staff, 28 October, 2020 / 9:00 am (ACI Africa).
The Focolare Movement will initiate an independent review of its handling of sexual abuse allegations.
Leaders responsible for the lay movement’s activities in France resigned from their positions this month, as the group addressed concerns that it did not properly address a former consecrated member of the movement who admitted to sexually abusing a minor, and is alleged to have committed numerous other acts of sexual abuse.
“The Focolare Movement has...decided to institute a special inquiry that will be entrusted to an independent Body the composition of which will be made public shortly.”
“The task of this Body will be to listen to the victims and to gather further testimonies, as well as investigating whether there were any omissions, cover ups or silences on the part of those responsible for the Movement. At the end of the investigation, the independent Body will make its final report public,” said an Oct. 22 statement from the Focolare Movement’s headquarters in Rome.
The statement addressed allegations concerning a former consecrated member of the group, who admitted in 1998 to having sexually abused a minor, and was dismissed from the movement in 2016.
